Blog.

January ends today, which I believe means that the statute of limitations on posts reflecting on the past year ends as well. I felt it would be remiss for me to not at least highlight a few things that I spent my time on last year.

2011 was a big year. As the year started, I was currently working on an as-yet unannounced, top-secret project for Threadless, alongside Good Apples.

Create an inspirational tee around the theme of "Sunrise."

Threadless Causes has been one of my main client projects for the last few months. One reason it was built was to make it easier for Threadless to respond quickly to current events and initiate the relevant design challenges that their community wants to participate in. True to form, we had this new challenge—with proceeds going to the Red Cross in support of the Japan relief effort—up in a matter of hours yesterday.

If you are a designer—or, at all creative—and are wishing there was something—anything—you could do to help the people of Japan as they respond to the devastation caused by the 8.9 magnitude earthquake and the corresponding tsunami, check this challenge out. The design challenge is appropriately based off of the theme: Sunrise, and I love the gorgeous graphic my cohorts at Good Apples came up with for the main banner.

Life, work, everything has been busy on my end. So much so that I can’t remember the last time I talked about something I’m actively working on here on this blog. Part of the issue is my limited free time, and part of it is the wonderful fact that I’m getting to work on some really amazing things, but we can’t spill the beans on it until they’re ready.

I’ve been working on the Causes site with Jake, several other fine folks at Threadless and the good guys over at Good Apples for a couple months now and we’re excited to show it off and watch people use it.

If you want your life to be fun as an entrepreneur, I suggest going into it with realistic expectations and to measure your success in different ways than financially. I’ve done well financially with Threadless, but if I had to give up one thing, the money would be the first thing to go. The happiness, relationships, enrichment in others’ lives, the community that now exists; the opportunities brought to artists—that’s the success that really matters for Threadless. Build your business in a way that lets you say that, and mean it too.

I feel that what makes spec work OK for me sometimes isn’t so much about the specific terms and pay and design requirements involved. It’s about why you are doing it. Is it for a friend? Is it for charity? Is it an exciting, fun project? Do you get enjoyment out of working on it? Do you need to find a creative release?

I agree. There are definitely some projects in that grey, “is it spec work?” area where it really comes down to a personal gut check: why am I doing this project?

Get’s an Update

Seriously, how awesome are the skinnyCorp folks (the ones behind Threadless)? They just launched some new products to their Naked & Angry site, including handbags, wallets, dishes, and umbrellas. Like Threadless, the patterns used on Naked & Angry are community contributed. Good stuff.